BREAKING

The 'monkey wrench' that is special rights

A Republican congressman is calling on the Trump administration to revoke an Obama-era executive order mandating special rights for transgender individuals serving in the military.

Even though President Trump is in office, the Army is moving forward with Barack Obama's transgender policy by imposing mandatory sensitivity training for officers, non-commissioned officers, and civilians. The purpose of the training is to "assist soldiers who have a medical diagnosis indicating that gender transition is medically necessary through the gender transition process."

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"... All of this started with a signature from the former secretary of defense, Ash Carter. So all it would take is a signature from [Defense] Secretary [James] Mattis to put this transgender issue to rest."

"[This is a waste of taxpayer dollars and training time] on disgusting issues about 'male pregnancy' because of a so-called 'trans-female' soldier who thinks she's a man and yet discovers she's pregnant – and now they [say] 'he' is pregnant."

"Congress controls the purse strings – so they could say we're not going to allow Department of Defense dollars to be used in this manner."

Oklahoma Representative Steve Russell was an Army ranger and decorated infantry officer who now serves on the House Armed Services Committee. During an appearance on American Family Radio's "Washington Watch" program, he expressed several concerns about this issue.

"It assumes that the rights of conscience of the overwhelming majority of commanders, military physicians, and lawyers are no longer protected," the congressman stated.

And he cited a particular scenario:

"A soldier did not have a sex reassignment surgery and recently stopped taking male hormones in order to try and start a family. Today the soldier approached 'his' commanding officer to discuss 'his' newly confirmed pregnancy."

Russell says these transgender mandates can be abused by service members who decide they do not want to deploy to combat.

"I state I'm suffering from gender dysphoria, for which there's no criteria for commanders to even know what this means," he poses. "You've got a construct where soldiers who don't want to deploy can throw this monkey wrench into the machinery, and you're underwriting it with your tax dollars."

Editor's note: Comments from Col. Ron Crews added after story was originally posted.

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